Pragmatic Approach
by laurzz
Summary: DannyLindsay. Post ep for 8x08. "She lied to me, Danny." Lindsay whispered softly. "She lied to me."


**A/N: I don't know about anyone else, but I am breathing a sigh of relief. I am so glad that they took the avenue of Lindsay doing the right thing as opposed to making a mistake with evidence. Last week sucked in terms of that argument but I've kind of just accepted it... I don't think I would have taken well to such a misuse of Lindsay's character though, not going to lie. And also, sweetpea? Is it just me or are these pet names for Lindsay killing anyone else? Every time Danny comes out with a new one, it's like the best thing of the episode - not even joking! I'm adding sweetpea to the word bank! (However, I am not against Montana making a reappearance... hint hint, writers!)**

**So, with that in mind, I'm going to stop rambling! Huge thank you to everyone who reviewed last week. I was absolutely astounded by the response! I honestly couldn't believe it; I'm thrilled that you guys liked what I came up with. Thank you guys! **

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><p>Pacing back and forth as he rocked his sleepy daughter, Danny Messer realised he was an actual mess. Since Lindsay had walked out of the door for the hearing earlier that morning, he had been unable to focus his attention on anything else.<p>

He knew the stakes were high; this wasn't just another hearing. Based on the altercation Lindsay had with Jo a few weeks back, Danny had been cautious enough as to not bring up the case when he was working with Jo. Although more of a case of loyalty to his wife and out of fear that he'd say something about Jo's rudeness to Lindsay, he'd not wanted to enforce a conversation that would make Jo uncomfortable, or likewise overly passionate. The impact of impending hearing on Lindsay had been astronomical too. Usually around hearings, she'd go over her evidence and the science with a fine tooth comb, much like she did while actually conducting the initial analysis. But this time had left her spent. She'd chased up old leads all day, checked case numbers and administrative details and corroborated the evidence with witness statements... except, her witness wasn't exactly reliable.

If Danny was completely honest, he didn't much faith in Ali as a witness. He'd dared not to admit it out loud, but it was just a gut feeling that he had. But Lindsay, she couldn't help but see the good in everyone. Like he had expected, she'd apologised to Jo the day after their 'argument'; with nothing in return from Jo herself; despite the fact that Jo had most definitely been the one in the wrong. So with her good nature in mind, Danny knew for a fact that she had taken Ali's statement as the truth, just like she did with every other witness that she came into contact with.

Lucy and her little cold that she'd contracted at pre-school had been doing the perfect job of taking his mind off the pressing issue at hand every now and then... but it still wasn't setting his mind at ease. He'd sent a series of texts to Lindsay, wishing her luck and later asking how it had gone, but as of yet, he'd not received any word back. He hoped with everything that he had that they'd achieved what they needed to with the case, but... he just couldn't be sure.

Casting his eyes down to his sniffling daughter, he felt his heart drop as she snuggled her face into his chest. He hated seeing her sick, even with just a little sniffle. She'd been lethargic and desperate for her mother all morning; and Danny knew that walking out of the door to go to work had been one of the hardest things Lindsay had needed to do in a long time.

Hearing her key finally turn in the door, Danny quickly darted down the hallway with a sleeping Lucy in his arms and placed her carefully in her little bed. He closed the blinds and turned her night-light onto the lowest setting. He pressed a kiss to her clammy forehead before tip-toeing from the room and shutting the door just the littlest bit.

Padding down the hallway, Danny searched for her in their apartment, but was instantly confused. The door was shut, she was nowhere to be seen and he could hear nothing. Or at least he thought he could hear nothing. Upon training his ears to ignore the sounds of the city outside, he could hear the tiniest little whimper, coming from somewhere in the vicinity to which he was in. His heart dropped as he realised what it was that crying meant.

It hadn't gone well.

He searched the apartment a little more extensively as he decided that calling out to her probably wasn't the best idea; and sighed heavily when his eyes finally found her, slumped with her back against the wall and her head in her hands. If somebody had said to him; what would be the one thing you didn't want to see today? That would have been it.

Without a moment's hesitation, he was over by her side and sliding down their front door, much like he could only assume, she had done moments previous. He settled next to her silently, and took her hand and squeezed it tight. With that little nudge, Lindsay's contained whimpers turned into full-on sobs as she buried her head in his shoulder, tucking herself into his side while she cried.

It definitely hadn't gone well.

Scenarios were flashing at rapid pace through his mind's eye and he couldn't help but feel angry. It frustrated him to no end that, they as the lead investigators and the scientists, often took the blame for the acquittal of the scumbags that destroyed families with their heartless actions.

Lindsay's sobs were breaking his heart and it hit him even harder that there was very little he could do to make any of this better for her. He could offer her words of reassurance, but he knew that they meant very little. She took her job _very_ seriously; letting nothing compromise her work. With her own experience of the justice system she knew how important a guilty verdict was to a victim desperately needing that closure.

Deciding that he could no longer listen to her heartbreaking sobs, Danny nudged her face away from his shoulder, so that he could wipe away her waterfall of tears; to which had an adverse affect and more tears surfaced just as quickly as the others had. He sighed heavily as he extracted himself from her and stood carefully. He then reached down and offered her his hand as a way of pulling her up from the ground. Initially, he didn't think that he was going to take his hand, but after a few moments, her shaking hand reached for his, letting him pull her from the ground. He did carefully and instantly pulled her into his arms, pressing soft kisses to her temple; trying to comfort her in any way that he could.

"She lied to me, Danny." She whispered softly. "She lied to me."

Danny hung his head as her words registered. Ali _had_ lied. "Baby..."

"I – I – I-" Lindsay hiccupped, unable to share the recount of the day with him. He took her hand and gently led her to their living room where he sat her down on the couch. He then went to grab a water bottle from the fridge with a box of tissues that he'd been using for Lucy's little nose. By the time he'd returned to the living room, Lindsay was curled up with Lucy's favourite teddy, snuggling it close to her chest for comfort.

She instantly acknowledged Danny's return and shifted slightly, as to make room for him, but did little else. He sat next to her and began running his fingers over her back, trying to soothe her tears and

"I gave her another chance." Lindsay's broken hearted tone whispered, "I gave her that chance and she lied."

"What did she lie about, Linds?"

"Everything." Lindsay whispered. "She lied about everything; she must have. There's no other explanation. She's in on it. She has to be."

"Linds," Danny sighed. "Come on, you don't think that. What did she say?"

"The tox report doesn't match her story or timeline she's given me."

"Could that be the drugs?"

Lindsay shook her head. "I asked her. She... Flack and I... we... she never..."

"Here," he said, offering the bottle of water to her. "Calm down, okay? Let's talk through it, don't work yourself up."

She shot him an angry look, before her features relaxed and she accepted the bottle from him. Even though she didn't like what he'd said, she knew that perhaps on some level he was right. Stressing about what had happened wasn't going to get her very far. Not now at least.

"Okay, so what happened?"

"They asked me about the rate of GHB in her system. Based on my findings and the timeline she's given me, the dosage would have had to have been over a thousand milligrams."

"That's death."

"Exactly." Lindsay said meekly. "And that's what I had to say on the stand. He's blatantly guilty and he's staring me in the face but I just fell short at that hurdle. There was nothing I could do... I had to tell the truth." She paused as a fresh bout of tears hit her. "Why did she lie to me, Danny?" she whispered, her voice breaking with emotions. "I wanted to help her. I wanted to make a difference; to see him in prison. I wanted to help Jo, and now I can't."

"Why?" Danny asked softly, his voice not representative of the emotions coursing through him.

"Because he's going to do it again!" she cried. "He got a reduced bail, Danny; he's going to rape somebody else - all because she lied to me."

"If he does it again though, we'll get him."

"We already had him!" she cried. "He was there in front of me, in handcuffs; we were so close Danny. This was exactly what Jo was trying to avoid. She told me that I needed to-"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa; you need to stop right now and listen to what you're saying." Danny stopped her, his voice now firm. "Do you even dare begin to question your work on this case. You have done absolutely everything by the book, sweetheart, and I know you know that."

"But... I just, I can't have. My science must have been off."

"Absolutely not; I refuse to believe that." Danny shook his head. "I know you Lindsay; you give a hundred percent in everything that you do. You test and retest and then retest again. This is not your fault; don't even start to think it is, okay? Do you understand me?"

"It is though!" she cried. "This is my fault."

"How?" he implored. "Lindsay, she lied. Not you. You did all that you could. You're only human; there's only so much you can do before someone else needs to take the baton and run with it."

"You wouldn't have messed it up." She whimpered.

"You didn't mess it up!" he stressed. "You did your investigation based on your witness statement but let science take the lead; as is what is expected. This is not reflective of you in any way, shape or form, sweetpea."

"It always comes down to the CSI though, Danny. It always comes down to the science."

"And the science is right!" he implored. "You have nothing to worry about."

"There are discrepancies with the evidence though!" she cried. "It doesn't match up."

"Not out of a case of your efforts though, Lindsay." He reminded her. "They aren't your discrepancies. They're as a result of things you were told under oath. She swore to tell you the truth, and if she didn't then that's her issue right now. That is her personal war."

"No, because it's mine too." Lindsay sobbed. "It's mine too, Danny."

"It isn't." He shook his head. "It's her's. You did everything right, Lindsay. You have nothing to worry about; this is not on your shoulders."

"Mac is going to be so angry."

"Why? Because you told the truth? Or because you ensured that you respected the integrity of the lab? Or even better; the fact that you represented the justice system fairly? Oh yeah, Mac is going to be _pissed._" He said the last word in jest, earning the tiniest smile from his wife. "Lindsay, Mac would never, ever be angry at you. He couldn't; it's genetically impossible."

"Danny, don't make jokes." She sniffled.

"Listen to yourself speak then, Linds." He said firmly; growing frustrated with the situation. "How could Mac be angry when you've done exactly what he expects? You went up there, told the truth and made no exceptions. You might not have wanted to tell the truth, but that makes you human. You don't want him to get away from this any more than the next person... yet; here we are, watching that potentially happen. You know what I think?"

"What?" she asked softly.

"I think that your compassion and your empathy are fuelling your tears." He said simply.

"Well, duh!" she implored childishly, "Well done there, Captain Observation."

"Well, where's the pragmatic approach that you usually take? Where's that compartmentalisation?"

She shrugged. "Still in the courtroom probably."

"Well, you need to get it back, baby because this," he gestured to her face and emotions, "is not doing you any good. You have so much more that you need to think and worry about. Yes worry about it, but this is _not, _on your shoulders. I want you to understand that."

"I do understand that." She said softly, "I just feel responsible."

Danny took a deep breath and braced himself for what he was going to say. "Like Jo then?"

"_What?"_ she said, a little more abrupt than what she'd anticipated. She amended her tone of voice quickly. "What?"

"Jo took this personally." He began. "She was emotionally involved, which although didn't cloud her judgements, held her captive for years. She's struggling with this. Don't make that same mistake, Lindsay... for me. Just, please? You've seen what happened to Jo... I know it's hard but, it's out of your hands now baby."

"I just wanted to get some justice." She wiped her eyes angrily. "I wanted things to be over for Jo and his victims; now he's going to rape someone else."

"That's if he makes bail." Danny pointed out. "Look, what is it that you always tell me?"

"Put the toilet seat down when you've finished."

"Cute." He smirked at her beginnings of coming around from the shell she was in when she first walked through the front door. "No, I was thinking more along the lines of 'everything happens for a reason.' You don't know why this happened right now, but it'll become clear soon... and when it does, things will fall into place. In the meantime, crying and being upset about this isn't going to make the fact that Ali lied to you any less true; so what's the point?"

"You're right." Lindsay sighed.

"Whoa, what?" Danny teased. "I am? Can I get that in writing?"

"Watch it, smartass." She winked at him as she snuggled into his side. "Listen, thank you. I needed that; I needed you."

"I didn't do anythin'" he shrugged off her thanks. She rolled her eyes playfully before wiping away the last tears.

"I'm going to go and check on Lucy," Lindsay said softly after a few seconds of quiet between them. "How has she been today?"

"Alright," Danny shrugged as he pressed a kiss to her temple. "She's been mighty upset and sniffly. She wanted her Mommy... just like always. In all seriousness, I think there's just somethin' about your Mommy cuddles and kisses that she can't get from Daddy."

"I bet that was hard to take." Lindsay smiled playfully as they stood from the couch together.

"Actually," He said as he took her head and led the way to their daughter's bedroom, "I think she's onto something." He said as he paused and pulled her into his arms. "I love you, and despite what you think, you did good today. I'm proud of you."

She looked up at him through her lashes and offered him a faint smile. "Really?"

He nodded adamantly. "Absolutely; you took a really hard situation and made sure you took the right path and told the truth. It's not an easy thing to do... when you know the truth could make things worse. I think rather than cryin', you should focus on the fact that you are an amazing scientist."

"How is it that you make scientist seem sexy?"

"It's a gift," he winked at her. "But you know what else?" He continued on. "You make an even better mother and wife..."

Lindsay simply smiled, stood on her tip-toes and pressed a soft and loving kiss to his lips before overtaking him and leading the way to Lucy's little bedroom.

While he didn't have many solutions for her latest predicament, he did have the knowledge that whatever was going behind the scenes of this investigation was something that they would be able to face together head on. Judging by Lindsay's reaction to today's events, there would be repercussions and revisits; but so long as she leant on him when she needed him the most, they'd make it through together. Just like they always did.

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><p><strong>There we have it! I hope you enjoyed the latest add-on to the episode! :) I'd love to know what you guys thought. Thanks for reading!<strong>


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